Synopsis

Three celebrity guests battle it out across various rounds in an attempt to convince the keeper of Room 101 Frank Skinner why their pet hates should be consigned into oblivion.

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Trivia

Until its 2012 revival, Room 101 was not a game show, and was rather more of a talk show. In this format, each show would see one celebrity guest attempt to convince either Nick Hancock or Paul Merton (the keepers of the door to Room 101) why their pet hates should be consigned into oblivion. Each celebrity guest would typically nominate seven or eight items for a fate worse than death, and would win or lose by the sheer force of their argument.

That said, the radio version did have a vague nod towards game shows: the reward for convincing Nick Hancock to allow something into Room 101 was a song from Radio Room 101, and each show's tunes would have a thematic link. The guest would be gently nagged until they spotted the connection.

"Wasn't Room 101" a Radio 1 show?" is a question we've not actually been asked, but can answer. No, it wasn't, but eight episodes were retrieved from the Radio 5 skip and repeated on One! Eff! Em! in summer 1994, when Chris Morris was being a bit too controversial.

Room 101 is the name of the torture room in George's Orwell's 1984, where Winston Smith encounters the worst thing in the world. It's different for every person - for him it was rats, which were also chosen by Jo Brand during the Nick Hancock era of the TV show. 1984 also provided the name for another popular game show, Big Brother.